The Santa Clara County Superior Court system of California has locations in the five California cities of San Jose, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, Morgan Hill, and Santa Clara.
The Santa Clara County Superior Court has jurisdiction over small claims, civil, criminal, family, juvenile, and traffic matters. Related Santa Clara County agencies are the Santa County Sheriff’s Department, the Santa Clara County Clerk/Recorder, and the Assessor’s Office.
The primary web site for the Santa Clara County Courts is http://www.scscourt.org.
There is an ample amount of metered parking near the main courthouse at 191 North First Street in San Jose. If the metered parking area is full, there are several $5 parking lots close by. Most of the other dozen or so Santa Clara County civil and small claims and traffic courts have free parking.
The main courthouse is at 191 North First Street, and has many levels, the first floor has the court records, scheduling departments, and many court clerks. The levels above the first floor are where the courtrooms are located, the court rooms are referred to as departments 1-16. I have visited this court at least 1,000 times, and never met a court clerk or a judge there that was not excellent.
The weather in Santa Clara County, California, is moderate, averaging from about 55 degrees Fahrenheit in January to 80 degrees in July. The rest of the year, the temperature is very moderate.
Similar to other California courts, the Santa Clara County court fee schedules are $395 for an unlimited civil ($25,000 or more) complaint, or other first paper filed, for any kind of case.
For a limited civil case (less than $25,000), it costs $370 for a complaint or other first paper filed. The court fee is $385 for unlawful detainer cases less than $25,000.
Small Claims Court charges $181 for a lawsuit, or for the first papers filed. For a complete list of their fees, visit http://www.scscourt.org/forms_and_filing/fees.shtml, and click on their current fee schedule.
The Santa Clara County Superior Court web site is average. They let you list and search the status of cases online, but they have not digitized the documents, so you cannot download copies of (e.g.) judgments. Their still very useful web site is at http://www.sccaseinfo.org
I have often looked up judgments on the Santa Clara court web site, and looked up judgments. One can see if they have been satisfied, not satisfied, dismissed, etc.
Unfortunately, most judgments are never satisfied. Judgments are not easy or cheap to enforce. You either have to recover the judgment yourself, or find a judgment broker, enforcer, or collections attorney.